A few years ago, I featured Damon Dominique and Jo Franco, two friends from college who had gained 440,000 subscribers on their YouTubetravel channel called "Shut Up and Go." They grew because they offered a novel idea: To not simply portray travel life, but to live travel. By crossing borders and learning languages, they were encouraging the youth of the world to move around and meet. And as lively as they were, entertainment seemed secondary to the mission of teaching how to fulfill millennial wanderlust.

I recently caught up with Jo Franco via email because the mission has hit some major milestones. Their YouTube channel passed the 1 million subscriber mark and, perhaps more importantly, last month they officially launched a digital publication, also called Shut Up and Go. The mission is the same too: "We encourage people to live the lives they’ve always wanted because in the end, the only person holding you back is yourself." There's a running count on the site that partially marks its growth, but also makes the point that people who really want to see the world, do. So far the numbers are impressive: 10 contributors have posted 475 articles from more than 25 destinations.

In this email interview, Franco discusses how the website became a reality, how life is different now that people answer to them and why YouTube works as a platform to teach.

Damon and I started the YouTube channel back in 2013 when we were the only two people in our college friend group who were willing to Shut Up and Go. We didn't care we were broke and in school. For instance, when we realized we couldn't afford going to a sexy beach in Mexico, we decided to go to the cheaper, but frigid tundra of Montreal for Spring Break. We'd rough it because we knew we'd gain in the stories and relationships we made along the way. It's almost been 10 years, but that trip sparked the Shut Up and Go motto.

We started showing our adventures on YouTube first to pitch it as a TV show. When traditional TV execs told us young travel doesn't sell, we started dedicating all of our time into the channel. What we saw kept us motivated: we weren't the only ones who wanted more out of life than the traditional, college, 9-5, married, retirement, then maybe travel post-retirement lifestyle. After two years consistently uploading on the channel (with all of our trips fully self-funded thanks to crappy odd jobs on top of paying crappy and overpriced NYC rent), we had created a community of people who connected to one another because of our videos. By 2015, we started receiving incredible emails about people having found the loves of their lives or best friends in the comments of our videos and Instagram account. We decided we needed to make a bigger brand that encompasses all stories of people living global lifestyles. Shut Up and Go was born, and the destination became shutupandgo.travel.

We officially launched the platform a month ago after working with a web design agency to create the sleek platform we would've loved to have found when we were just getting started in our travels. To populate the site with the most on-brand articles, we reached out to our audience asking contributors to submit their stories. We now work closely with our content manager for the platform, a team of 10 global writers, and four community moderators who work daily on engaging the Shut Up and Go community. It's become a massive operation because we're creating a place that's never existed before: a platform for people who see travel as a lifestyle, not a luxury.

We're not your standard company though, very fittingly, we're a lifestyle business. We let our employees work wherever they feel most inspired. This means we're 100% remote, but the furthest thing from removed. Weekly calls, Google docs, tons of messages, emails, and a few work trips a year keep us engaged with the team despite time zone differences. We work out of global co-working spaces to give our audience daily entertaining articles, social media content, but also resources like discounts, events, and products to help them along the way.

What did you have to change about your approach to your work when you started to add employees?

It's a totally different ballgame now. Damon and I have built this brand from scratch for the last seven years. You don't realize how much you've learned until you have to download that information to staff that you're onboarding who will now ultimately represent your brand and vision. The good news for us is that our brand was built on passion - and everyone who works for us happened to have been a fan of Shut Up and Go, which makes them some of the most motivated and passionate people to work with. My approach is different now because I need to take into account multiple time zones, communication styles, and strengths of our team to delegate tasks to the right people. It's been and will continue to be a huge growing process - especially since there's no playbook on being a remote CEO - at least not until I write it.

For those who want that lifestyle of travel, but don't know how to get started (or think it's still a privileged way of living) how can this new website help them?

Our website only houses articles from writers who leave their comfort zones and shut up and go. The key thing to know though is that while there has always been a "luxurious" allure with travel, in addition to the good ol' fun parts of adventuring the globe, our writers also talk about the relatable and not so sexy parts of travel: how to shut up and go with limited budgets, and social anxiety. In fact, 95% of our staff is under 23 years old, and are studying abroad or living abroad at the moment. If they're not fully living abroad, they're still making time to travel within their own countries because it's a spirit that doesn't require a plane ticket. It's their stories and guides that highlight their struggles, the visa process, and the budgeting strategy that will ultimately help readers beyond just the aspirational aspect. In addition to the written and social media content (we also post stories on our Instagram daily that offer help, information, or entertainment), we have relationships with language schools, accommodation sites, and flight booking search engine, Skyscanner, to offer cheap flight deals. We're showing them resources they didn't know existed in the midst of globally-minded content they've never seen before.

Why do you think YouTube works as a “teaching” platform?

YouTube works as a teaching platform because it's a search engine. The most common way people use the platform is in question form: "how do I braid my hair," or "what does a $1000 apartment look like." People search for things they want to find answers for because it's more interactive than reading a bland explanation on a glitchy site. With that being said, it makes all the sense in the world that there was an explosion of gaming, DIY, and beauty channels. People wanted to find out how to unlock video game levels, and how to do the perfect smokey eye without smudging. Once the viewer finds the answer to what they were looking for, they get invested in the channel if there's personality. An added bonus is that they get to comment and connect to a community of people in the video's comment section.

For us specifically, our audience started growing much faster when we began speaking in multiple languages. We made videos like "how to sound cooler in French," and "how to flirt with a Brazilian in Portuguese," and the audience found it refreshing that we weren't boring language teachers, instead, we'd make jokes that actually made someone want to learn a language. Now we have over one million people who love engaging with us on all platforms, including our new @shutupandgo account across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

What do you think that says about the way humans learn today?

People connect to people. It's not the one-sided guidebook that's going to make you fall in love with Paris, it's the love stories that you hear about. It's not the directions on the back of an eyeliner package that's going to make you feel like the most confident girl in the world, it's the confident girl who's going to inspire you to feel as glam. The human element of learning and storytelling that's capable on YouTube is what makes it brilliant. The community building that comes with it is what keeps people coming back for more.

Note: This is the first installment of a monthly series called DIYouTube about teachers, trainers and guides who use YouTube as their classroom.